Karzai Promises to Fight Corruption Amid Doubts Over His Top Allies
“We will do our best through all possible means to eliminate this dark stain,” said Karzai, according to an Associated Press translation of his remarks in a news conference. Obama told reporters he had urged Karzai to make “a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption,” after the Afghan presidents re-election was confirmed yesterday following the withdrawal of Abdullah Abdullah from a runoff.
Karzai said the problem “cannot be corrected just by changing officials, but needs an effort from all sides. We have problems with insufficient laws and poor implementation that also needs to be corrected.” He spoke in Dari and his answer was translated by Hamid Elmi, a spokesman in his press office.
Karzais declaration, in his first public remarks since being declared the winner of a disputed August election, “was not specific or dramatic in a way that can give Afghans hope that he will take any significant action on corruption,” said Haroun Mir, director of the Afghanistan Center for Research and Policy Studies in Kabul, the capital. “This was the moment for him to show his determination to change things, but he spoke only in general terms and he showed that he is going to stick with these corrupt allies,” Mir said.
Fahim, Dostum
As Karzai spoke today, he was flanked by his two vice- presidential running mates, including General Muhammad Qassim Fahim, accused by former U.S. officials of corruption and by the monitoring group Human Rights Watch of war crimes. To win a second term, Karzai allied himself with several regional strongmen such as Fahim and former General Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose presence in the government appears to limit chances for a real anti-corruption drive, said Ahmed Nader Nadery, chairman of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan.
Obama said yesterday he told Karzai in a phone call that “proof is not going to be in words, its going to be in deeds.”
Mir said that kind of pressure from the international community “is the only hope for Afghans now to see a change in the government.”
Afghanistan is seen as the fifth-most corrupt among 180 countries surveyed by the Berlin-based monitoring group Transparency International.
Karzais Brother
U.S. officials said Karzais brother, Abdul Wali Karzai, is paid by the Central Intelligence Agency for cooperation on security in southern Afghanistan, though some U.S. officials suspect hes involved in opium-smuggling, the New York Times reported Oct. 27. Both brothers denied the allegations.
Fahims role in Karzais government may become a major controversy, according to Hillary Mann Leverett, a National Security Council director for Afghan affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Fahim is “a human-rights-abusing, drug- trafficking warlord,” Leverett wrote in an August essay in Foreign Policy magazine.
“I challenge you: If someone can find one shred of evidence, I will hang myself,” Fahim said last month, denying such allegations in an interview with the New York Times. The former guerrilla commander, who will serve as first vice president in the new government, didnt speak at todays news conference.
Concern Over Dostum
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul voiced “serious concern about the prospective role” of Dostum in August, when he returned from exile and backed Karzais re-election after the Afghan president reversed his dismissal as a presidential security aide over a criminal investigation. As many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners died in Dostums custody in 2001, human rights groups have reported.
Afghanistans election commission canceled a scheduled Nov. 7 runoff between Karzai and Abdullah after the former foreign minister dropped out. The first round of voting, on Aug. 20, was marred by fraud.
Ending the disputed election process clears one obstacle to the decision Obama has promised on the future U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel last month suggested the U.S. may hold off on a decision on sending more troops until a “legitimate and credible government” is in place.
Afghan Law
“Although the process was messy, Im pleased to say that the final outcome was determined in accordance with Afghan law,” Obama told reporters yesterday after a White House meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union.